Monday, September 7, 2009

It's another 9 days til Bosco is 1-month-old.They say the first month is always the toughest. And I couldn't agree more!The confinement days so far has been like a roller coaster ride for me, especially the breastfeeding journey. I was overly-confident that, if I could feed Chloe well 2 years ago, so could I this round. I was so wrong. And the fact that Bosco is a 'lil milk monster, is making it tougher.I hope I could conquer the coming days in a breeze...

First Week• Beaming with smile after a smooth delivery - seeing baby well and healthy (and does actually look like me a little!)• Suffered from bad engorgement in day 4-5 and never can latch on hungry baby successfully.• Resort to feeding baby EBM but at the same time, could only pump out so little, on the contrary to how hard the breasts are.• Finally the blocked ducts were cleared with a lots of massaging, and I could pump out a good 8 oz at one go.

Second Week• Both mummy and baby had to go back for 1-week review. I was healing well but poor Bosco had to be admitted for phototherapy. His jaundice level shot up to 21 points and boy, I was heartbroken.• Decided to let the nurse feed him FM during the treatment as we're suspecting too much ginger in my food intake. That 2 days were the only time I could store and freeze my EBM.• Continue to feed Bosco for 2 more days after he's discharged with the jaundice level at borderline, 9 points.• Towards the end of the week, feeding was back on track. Bosco could latch well and I continued to pump to store too. "That should be the way," until...

Third Week• Out of nowhere, Bosco rejected to latch and was screaming his lungs out each time I offered him. If he wasn't crying, he would fall asleep half way feeding.• That few days were already enough to make my supply drop into half.• And as I'm typing this entry, I'm already thawing the frozen EBM to keep up with Bosco's growth spurt.• Though sometimes he would still latch on, I hardly could keep him full for long. Bottle feeding still does a better job.

Geez... I really don't know how long I could keep up with this moo moo job. I'm downing lots of soup and hot beverages. Please bless me with lotsa milk! Moooooo...